Officers cleared to return to work

VINCENNES — Five police officers have been cleared to return to work after following a review of a shooting in which a southwestern Indiana man was killed. A department review board found all the Vincennes officers acted properly during the April 29 confrontation with 42-year-old Ross Darkis, city Police Chief Dusty Luking said.

Officers found an angry Darkis on his porch with a handgun after an argument with his girlfriend, according to police. The officers tried to use a stun gun on Darkis during the half-hour standoff before he aimed his gun at them, prompting them to shoot him.

$60M project in Muncie planned

MUNCIE – A developer is planning a $60 million project with apartments, commercial storefronts and a parking garage a few blocks from the Ball State University campus.

The project discussed during a Muncie Redevelopment Commission will replace a largely vacant building in the Village commercial district.

The Star Press reports that city officials plan to start building a six-story parking garage at the site this summer. Investment Property Advisors of Valparaiso would then build a four-story building wrapping around the garage that will have 228 apartments and storefronts on the street level.

Redevelopment commission director Todd Donati says the parking garage could be completed in November, with the apartments ready for leasing in the fall of 2014.

Work set to start on cricket fields

INDIANAPOLIS – Plans to build fields in a city park for cricket matches and other sports mainly popular overseas are advancing after an Indianapolis board approved the first contract for the $6 million project.

The city’s Board of Public Works awarded the contract Wednesday, clearing the way for work to start in a far-eastside park on a project that Republican Mayor Greg Ballard has promoted as a way to increase the city’s international appeal.

The nearly 50-acre complex is expected to be completed in fall 2014, and will have five multiuse fields that will also accommodate lacrosse, Gaelic football, rugby and hurling, The Indianapolis Star reported. The plan doesn’t include any permanent seating.

Ballard has said the project will serve niche sports popular among the city’s growing immigrant communities. Ballard spoke during a trip to India last month about his goal of establishing Indianapolis as a cricket capital.

City officials said the World Sports Park will include fields that could be reconfigured regularly, with temporary stands brought in for larger events.

“I believe this serves a need we have in our community as far as field sports,” Indy Parks Director John Williams said.

Some City-County Council members have questioned Ballard’s plan to pay for the project from a fund established for street, sidewalk and other infrastructure repairs with $425 million from the 2010 sale of the city’s water and sewer utilities.

“The concern is that the money is for infrastructure in Indianapolis,” said Democratic councilman William Oliver, chairman of the council’s Parks and Recreation Committee.